The Bengals beat writers sit down with Darqueze Dennard on this week's episode of Beyond the Stripes.
Cincinnati Enquirer

Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Jeff Driskel (6) runs out of bounds in the fourth quarter of an NFL Week 12 football game against the Cleveland Browns, Sunday, Nov. 25, 2018, at Paul Brown Stadium in Cincinnati.(Photo: Kareem Elgazzar)

There comes a time in lots of Bengals seasons, too many Bengals seasons, when the word-well runs dry. The Do Your Job requests have been duly noted, Marvin Lewis and Mike Brown have been sufficiently turned on the spit. The Factory of Sameness shuts down for another year, and you are left discussing the potential of Jeff Driskel.

No shot at Jeff Driskel. In fact, the Jeff Driskel Era might be very interesting in any other town but this one. Here, he can play these last five games like Patrick Mahomes, and Andy Dalton would still be the unchallenged starter.

Sigh.

Driskel is big (6-foot-4, 234 pounds), fast (4.56 seconds to run 40 yards) and in his brief, live tryouts, doesn’t seem awed by the footlights.

Urban Meyer looked at Driskel and saw Tim Tebow II. Meyer signed him to play college at Florida, then Meyer left and took his spread offense with him, before Driskel had even arrived. Urban’s replacement Will Muschamp wanted to play a more pro-style offense.

Driskel did OK playing that style. He led the Gators to an 11-2 record and a loss in the Sugar Bowl as a sophomore. He got hurt early his junior year, got benched his senior season and finished his quasi-am career at Louisiana Tech.

The 49ers drafted him in the sixth round and cut him late in training camp, because they thought Christian Ponder was better. The Bengals picked up Driskel then, in September 2016. Then last Sunday, Driskel threw his first pro TD pass, to Tyler Boyd, who promptly threw the sucker into the stands. Which is too many words to say that Jeff Driskel hasn’t yet had his full day in the sun, even though he’s from Florida.

What if he does?

What if Driskel is the Brett Favre Story, revived?

To recap: Favre was a second-year backup in Green Bay in Game 3 of the ’92 season, when Packers starter Don Majkowski got hurt early in the game against the Bengals. Favre entered, threw for 289 yards and commenced making history. I mentioned that to Driskel. He had no idea what I was talking about. He hadn’t even been born yet.

But what if he’s Favre? Or Jimmy Garoppolo, who ceased being Tom Brady’s valet last season, and proceeded to kill it in San Francisco?

This is crazy hope, Doc. Why do you torture us with crazy hope?

See first paragraph, above.

The Bengals got an opportunity of sorts when Dalton went down. The team needs wholesale revamping, the sort of change the BrownTrust heretofore has been incapable of. Now that Dalton has left the 2018 season, the Trust has another chance.

That’s cold. Three days after he goes down, you want him out.

The NFL is cold. I didn’t say Dalton wasn’t a capable NFL QB. He is. I said he has run his race here. If the goal is to do better than a first-round playoff L, the machine needs re-tooling.

I wrote after last season that if the Bengals fired Marvin Lewis, they also needed to replace Andy Dalton. Maybe not immediately, but ASAP. The consistently very good teams in the NFL have one thing in common: Great coach, great QB. You can look at what’s happening now. You can look at what happened 30 years ago.

Now: Belichick and Brady, Tomlin and Ben, Sean Payton and Drew Brees. A let’s-see nod to Sean McVay and Jared Goff, and Andy Reid and Mahomes.

As Driskel noted Wednesday, “The NFL is all about takin’ advantage of your opportunities.’’ He’s an unassuming guy, eager to say nothing even remotely interesting about himself. The closest he got was when we asked about his speed: “It’s a tool I have that generates big plays,’’ Driskel allowed. And yet, A.J. Green called him “the best athlete on the team, by far.’’ The Boston Red Sox thought enough of Driskel to draft him two years after he’d given up baseball. He was a sixth-round draft pick. So was Tom Brady, who got his chance when Drew Bledsoe went down.

“We’re kinda just worried about this week right now,’’ said Driskel. Fine, but that doesn’t mean you have to be. It’s almost December and the Bengals once again have nothing going on. Von Miller will arrive Sunday with violent intentions. It threatens to be a worthless day.

You can toss up your hands and drink the familiar whine. Or you can look at Jeff Driskel and see Brett Favre. Your choice. History has shown here that it won’t make a damned bit of difference who Driskel is. But dreams are free. And better than nightmares.